(5/19/11) CTI Awarded $75,000 Gift from Wells Fargo

CHARLOTTE – May 19, 2011 – The Charlotte Teachers Institute (CTI) received a $75,000 gift from The Wells Fargo Foundation to support the Institute’s work providing professional development for teachers in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS). An innovative partnership among the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Davidson College and CMS, Charlotte Teachers Institute brings together faculty, staff and other resources to engage teachers in academic seminars. The Wells Fargo Foundation gift was presented to the UNC Charlotte Foundation on behalf of CTI.

The Wells Fargo Foundation has supported CTI since its inception in 2009. This most recent gift will support CTI’s general programming, including the 2011 round of seminars which began in late April. Through seminars led by UNC Charlotte and Davidson College faculty, CMS teachers learn new content, work collaboratively with other teachers, and develop new curricula for their students. Teachers serve as leaders in the Institute and choose seminar topics they deem most important and engaging for current CMS teachers and their students.

An affiliate of the Yale National Initiative at Yale University, CTI is a local alliance designed to strengthen teaching in CMS by cultivating content-knowledge, creativity, leadership skills and collaboration within and among Charlotte’s public school teachers. CTI programs include long-term seminars and special events for teachers, as well as community presentations such as the popular Exploding Canons cultural collaboration series.

Currently 98 CMS teachers in grades K-12 are enrolled in eight, multidisciplinary seminars that continue until December. The seminars’ weekly meetings recess during the summer, while teachers immerse themselves in reading and research related to the curriculum units they are developing for their own students. These curriculum units generate learning beyond each teacher’s classroom, as the final units are shared with teachers’ school colleagues and are also published on the CTI and Yale National Initiative websites, making them accessible to teachers worldwide.

CTI programs are made possible by a joint commitment of resources from all three Institute partners and through the generosity of private funding institutions such as The Wells Fargo Foundation.

For more information, contact CTI Interim Director Robin Mara at rmara@uncc.edu or 704-687-2049.